Personal Identity & Cultural Self-Awareness

RSHE focuses on relationships, sexual health and physical and mental wellbeing. [rshe-foreword §1, §3] Identity appears once in primary as a by-product of self-esteem — "a strong sense of their own identity" through skills and interests [rshe-pilot-extracts §36] — but isn't developed as a curriculum thread. REAL's LT 1.3 takes that further: at Band D, students name unchosen group memberships — family, first language, nationality — and recognise how those memberships shape how they're read by others. [real-framework-overview §28]

The Welsh framework recognises identity as shaped by groups, but only at the upper Progression Steps. PS3 names that "values, attitudes and identity are shaped by different groups and influences", [cfw-pilot-extracts §22] and PS4 asks learners to evaluate that shaping. [cfw-pilot-extracts §23] REAL's LT 1.3 starts at Band B — a six-year arc rather than a senior-school turn — and at Band E asks students to identify how their own cultural background might be distorting an interpretation. [real-framework-overview §29]

CASEL's Self-Awareness includes identity content, framed affirmatively at the youngest bands: "list things they like…and things they do well (strengths)" at K-1 [casel-pilot-extracts §20] and "identify interests and personal strengths" at G2-3. [casel-pilot-extracts §21] That framing fits five- and six-year-olds. REAL's LT 1.3 also affirms strengths early, then at Band D adds the move of naming unchosen memberships — family, language, nationality — and how those shape what others assume. [real-framework-overview §28]